Where Soul Meets Body
by dessiderium
Summary: The secrets of the Elric brothers come out to light after the arrival of a most unexpected character with unbelievable abilities.
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter one**_

The streets of Dublith were almost as dusty as ever. It wasn't a really big town and the streets weren't paved like those of big cities like Central or any of the other important cities across the country, and the midday sun shone brightly; though none of those things seemed to be noticed by the armored alchemist passing by.

Alphonse shuffled through the streets lifting a little bit of dust as he passed by. His mind couldn't really seem to care about it or about the sun's excessive warmth that day. But then again, it was something he had stopped feeling a long time ago, to the point where he was already used to it. It was as if things like the sun burning in his face and the wind blowing against his hair were things so distant to him, as distant as if he were watching them on a beautiful painting. No matter how hard the artist's effort had been, that feeling would always remain on a piece of canvas and would never give the sensation it projected. It would only make them remember.

He had hopes though, of being able to feel those things once again. But for now, something different was taking place in his mind, and it wasn't hope or optimism.

Frustration.

Al was usually, if not most of the time, very patient with his brother's tantrums and reckless attitude against the things he didn't like. He put up with them most of the time, apologized for emotional damage, if there was any, and even followed along the things he said simply because he didn't _like_ fighting with him. He was the only family member he had left; he saw no reason to fight with him.

But there were times in which he just couldn't take it any longer and snapped at his brother's lack of maturity against certain things, like asking their father for help. They were without one _single_ lead on the philosopher's stone and he knew their father had been also doing some research on it. Better yet, he was absolutely _sure_ he knew something about it. It wouldn't kill them to ask him about it.

Something hadn't occurred Alphonse until now. His father didn't know about their bodies.

He wouldn't be mad for what had happened to their bodies, would he? At least Alphonse hoped he wouldn't. But since he didn't really know the man he didn't know what to expect. His father had left, yes, but he was still his father so he had the right to worry about what had happened to his children's bodies. So much thinking made him wonder what he would prefer. A scolding said he was mad at them, but at the same time it also said he was also worried, like Teacher did. She sure beat him and his brother everyday but in the end, she would heal their wounds and tell them it would only make them stronger. But if he didn't say anything…did it mean he didn't care at all?

_No,_ he shook his head at that thought. He was his father. He _had_ to care, and he knew he hadn't done any of this on purpose. He wouldn't lose hope on him, not until he could confirm that it wasn't true and that he didn't care about them like Brother said. Not until then, Alphonse would remain steady on his request to visit the man.

Unfortunately, his brother didn't take it the same way as him and they ended up having such a big fight in which even alchemy had been a part of. If his brother wouldn't listen to him no matter the countless reasons he was giving him, well fine then!

_Stupid brother…_

Flashbacks of that recent fight were taking over at least ninety-five percent of his concentration. Even when he didn't have the subject of his unusual anger in front of him, he couldn't seem to find anything else to distract him on this stroll.

The streets of Dublith were surprisingly empty that day. _How weird,_ Alphonse thought. There were usually some people doing their daily chores outside their houses. Housewives sweeping the dust away, men gathered in little groups discussing trending topics and playing cards, and kids playing with their respective groups of friends. At least that's how he remembered the streets of Dublith from the last time he had been there, though that had been a long time ago. Before he and his brother had lost their bodies to a forbidden taboo. Back then when they were kids and fighting over these things seemed to make more sense because they were kids, and kids fought for almost everything.

If Alphonse recalled correctly, he and his brother sure fought about some really non-sense stuff when they were children…because they could afford to.

Al kept walking with his head down. In that moment, and without noticing, his thoughts were transporting him to a different time. His mind was transported to the first fight he had with his brother right here in this city four years ago.

"Here we are!" their new teacher, Izumi Curtis, exclaimed, admiring the beauty of the town which for the brothers was something new, exciting. Everything since Mrs. Curtis had accepted to be their teacher had been a complete adventure; since their first train ride ever to their fight for survival at Yock Island to their arrival at a town completely different from Resembool.

They had to walk a while to get to the Curtis Residence. During that small stroll through the city Ed and Al saw a lot of people passing by, people standing there, people doing their chores. And despite not knowing them, the brothers would look at those people with such a big fascination. They were very excited about what was going to be the _real_ training and still proud of themselves for having passed the first round but most importantly, for having overcome the most difficult task they've had in their lives: surviving.

As soon as they reached the house, the brothers were allowed to explore it by their new teacher, who also indicated which one would be their room. She had prepared for this and had a bunk bed set up on their new room. Ed and Al stared at it in amusement. They had never slept on a bunk bed before, not even seen one, just heard of them from what the other kids at the school they used to go to, talked about. At their home in Resembool, they shared one double bed next to a wall. Since Al was the youngest, he had always been afraid that he might fall out of it so he slept next to the wall, while Ed slept at the edge of it. Thanks to this, he always had to wake up his brother anytime he wanted to go to the bathroom.

For the first time he would have his own bed. And since it was big enough, this time he wouldn't be afraid of falling and wouldn't have to disturb his brother for his physiological needs.

Before he was even done contemplating the beauty of having his own bed, his brother had already climbed to the top bed and claimed it as its own, but Alphonse wouldn't be left out of it because he knew sleeping on the top bed was ten times better.

He climbed the small stairs and got to the top bed where his brother was already fixing his pillow. Al touched his shoulder to make his brother face him. "Brother, I want to sleep in the top bed!" he cried.

"No way, Al! I got here first!" Ed replied and shrugged his brother's hand off his shoulder and got back to fixing his pillow.

Before they even noticed, they had gone already on one really loud fight which caused their teacher to show up in their front door, finding the brothers in a ready-to-kill-themselves position.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!" she yelled furiously. She looked like she was about to give them a good beat up but seemed to wait for the brothers to explain themselves.

The brothers had already an idea of their new teacher's strength, and temper from the first time they met her so this had made them respect her since. Quickly, both of them got down from the bed; Al used the small stairs but Ed jumped off of it, both assuming soldier's position in front of her.

Al was the first to talk his reasons for wanting the top bed but was rudely interrupted by his brother not so long after having started. This only seemed to make Teacher angrier so she clapped her hands together and touched the furniture. Blue sparks, sign of a transmutation, came out of it and before Ed or Al could say anything else, she had already transmuted the bunk bed into two regular beds, one next to the other.

Once again the Elric brothers had been witnesses of her, back then, unique alchemy without circle and couldn't help but to stare at it with their mouths open, so extremely amused that they even forgot to complain.

"There! Now both get the same thing" she said, looking one last time at the boys stare at what she just did. She was walking out of the room but said something before she did, "The training will begin in five minutes" then left the boys alone.

"That was…_impressive_" Al gasped, still staring at the body of matter she had just divided. Even when he had seen her transmute something a hundred times bigger than that when they first met her on Resembool, it was the fact that she was able to it without a circle that amazed Alphonse to no end. Right next to him, he could feel the same thoughts from his brother.

"Great!" brother blurted out, finally coming out of the state of surprise. "Now there's no top bed for any of us! Are you happy Al?"

"It wasn't my fault, brother!" Al replied back. "It's yours for always being so hot-headed and desperate!" he probably yelled that a little too loud.

"_My _fault? You're the one who started it!"

"I did_ not!_"

"_WHY AREN'T YOU TWO OUTSIDE YET!?_"

And that was it. The first day of training was excruciating. She never went easy on them just for being kids or because it was their first time. Once they had learned the basics of hand-to-hand combat, she fought with them like she'd do with any other person that would have challenged her to a fair fight, leaving the boys completely exhausted; perhaps even more than they had been on their days at Yock Island. By the end of the day, the matter of who slept in which bed wasn't important anymore. Each boy fell in one bed, passing out almost instantaneously.

All of a sudden a loud thud brought Alphonse back to his own time and senses.


	2. Chapter 2

_**asdfghjhgrajghfgks**_

He had no clue how he had been walking all this time when his head and mind hadn't been on the road ahead. He gasped, feeling a little nervous and turned around. Desperately, he looked for something, a building, a sign he might remember seeing, _anything_ that could help him figure out how much distance he had walked with his 'eyes closed', but couldn't figure out a thing. His mind had been _completely_ transported to the past, though he wasn't quite sure if the feeling of frustration against his brother was gone.

When he turned to face the road once again, he was surprised to have finally found someone, but not the glad-kind of surprise.

A young girl was lying on the floor in front of him. Her eyes were closed and it seemed her consciousness wasn't on its place. Then he immediately put together what just had happened. He had done this to her, for not having paid attention to where he was walking he had hurt someone. Alphonse felt panic and bent over to look at the girl closely. On her forehead he found a slight red mark was starting to show up.

_Oh no._ He gently removed the hair from her face and placed his gauntlet on her forehead, desperately hoping it would wake her up. But the sun was insanely bright for his actions to have the desired effect.

She wasn't dead, but he wondered how hard she had hit her head for her to pass out like that. To some people it took more than a bump to make them faint, but others fainted at the slightest bump. Not that this girl was one of them, he had never seen her before, that he was sure about. But then again, he hadn't been in Dublith in so long and this girl could be a new resident; the only one around at this time it seemed.

She wasn't waking up and Alphonse felt responsible for her, so he held her in his arms and took her somewhere safer to rest other than the middle of the street, some place with a bit of shadow since he thought this really bright sun might have had a part in her loss of consciousness.

There was a small place to rest near an alley that was out of reach for the sun rays, and that's where he decided to carefully place the girl. "Hey" he gently shook her shoulder. "Are you okay? Can you hear me?" he asked but got no response.

The next thing to do, he thought, would be to get a little bit of water to wake her up, since trying to gently shake her shoulder didn't work out. He looked around whether there was something that he could transmute and get water from, but he found nothing so he thought of leaving her for a few minutes while he searched the surroundings.

For a strange reason, it was as if life had come back to the town, increasing little by little. Lucky for him, he found a man he thought might have some water and so he approached to him and explained the situation, motioning the place where the girl was lying down, and that he just wanted to help her wake up. The man nodded and courteously handed him a small bucket with water in it.

"Thank you" Al bowed in gratitude and went to the place where she was.

When walking towards her, Al noticed she appeared to be opening her eyes. She held her head, which now was showing a more prominent red mark, and began staring at her surroundings in bewilderment, probably asking herself how she had gotten from walking in the middle of the street to being sitting in alley. At least that's what he could tell from the very confused look in her eyes. Alphonse could only hope it wasn't amnesia.

"You're okay!" he exclaimed cheerfully. He was really glad that she was alright. Then he couldn't help it and forced his pace a bit. When she noticed Alphonse, she looked like she had seen a ghost and let out what seemed like a very surprised gasp which made Al stop.

_It's the armor…_

Before he could think of anything else, out of the blue a garbage can next to her exploded. Al backed off, feeling a little bit scared as the girl looked at it in disbelief.

"Are you alright!?" he asked agitatedly but she said nothing. Her eyes flickered from his armored body, which he knew she saw like a threat, and the object that had been set on fire for no apparent reason.

He quickly approached to her to see if she had been hurt but she was trying to get up on her own, though she lost her balance and fell to the floor. Al immediately offered his hand to help. From the floor she stared at it in confusion for a couple of seconds but in the end she finally took it. "Are you alright?" he asked again, trying to meet her eyes and noticing that her forehead had gotten redder from the previous bump against his body.

She stood up pretty slowly, and Al noticed she wouldn't take her eyes away from the incident. Then she looked at Alphonse but she wasn't saying a thing and the answer to his question remained unknown. She was opening her mouth but what came out of it were stutters. She must still be in shock, Al thought.

"I— everything's fine!" she finally spoke real fast. "Everything's fine! I, I have to go!" she repeated before her unexpected take off. She didn't ask the questions Alphonse thought she might have. She said nothing but those few words leaving Al to be the confused one here. Did she know anything about what just happened? He couldn't help to wonder.

_Wait! _ He wanted to say, but all he could do was to raise his right arm as if it was magically going to stretch itself and grab her shoulder. For a reason he felt like following her, partially because she was hurt and it had been his fault. And second, because he suspected she had something to do with what just happened. _No_, he didn't have to suspect, it was written all over her face.

Al was starting to notice how the life was returning to the town and the streets were getting a bit crowded but still he couldn't help to stare at the mess of a place where there was once a scared girl, wondering how on earth without any touching or circle she had managed to create a reaction out of nowhere. Shaking his head, he told himself that the answer to these questions would only come if he asked them to the responsible person. She could not have ran very far from where Al was standing so if he wanted to reach her, he might as well starting moving.

The streets were finally starting to resemble the ones from his memories. It was as if all the people had _planned_ to not leave their house for a certain amount of time. Were there any news being broadcasted on the radio at that time and that's why the people had locked themselves in?, he wondered as he followed the way the mysterious girl had taken, simultaneously moving his head from side to side checking if she had taken a turn down any street. He was also trying to avoid some of the looks he was getting because of the armor. Even after four years, a part of him could still feel the awkward whispers down his back; not that he stopped caring about them, he was used to. His hopes, though, of getting his body back in the not so distant future, were bigger than any other feeling of social rejection.

Up ahead, a certain bright, red color caught his attention causing Al to stop his pace. Fortunately, he was tall enough to identify the person wearing such vivid color as his brother

Al could see from a short distance how the girl tripped against his brother, stopped to look at him and without saying anything she just continued to run, while his brother was left with a sort of annoyed look on his face.

"Jeez! What a charmer!" Ed complained, staring at the runaway girl as Alphonse approached him.

"_Brother!"_ he yelled, unconsciously stopping right next to the blond.

"Al?"

"Wait!" Al tried yelling once again but the person he was addressing to wasn't there anymore. But he could see the direction she took.

"What now Al?" brother said coldly, looking away from him. He was still mad.

"Brother, I saw that girl made an object explode out of nothing!" Al explained, motioning in the girl's direction and continued to run after her.

Alphonse didn't stop to stare at the surprised look his brother might be having. He just continued to run after her. In just a matter of seconds the two brothers were side by side running to find an explanation.

Brother had always been faster than Alphonse so he went a little bit up ahead of him; not to mention that running when your body wasn't a six feet armor made of steel was a lot easier. Even after four years that this body had been a part of him, he still felt it weird when he wasn't careful when running or walking. Lucky for them, the girl wasn't any faster than the two of them so they managed to track her down easily to an alley where she might have thought she could have fooled them. Or at least it didn't fool brother since he was up ahead and apparently very intrigued to know more about the topic. Al was running not so far behind him.

Brother was the first to reach her. Then in just seconds she was surrounded by each brother in the two corners of the alley.

At first she had a scared, surprised look on her face. But then she despicably looked at the two brothers like they had just ruined her plan to get away from them. The next thing she did was to push her long, red hair back, since it was all over her face from all the running; then she took a deep breath.

"What?" she said annoyed, glaring at both of them.

There was a small amount of time in which none of them said anything and everyone was just staring at each other.

Finally Al spoke, "How did you do it?"

The girl seemed surprised as she turned to face Al. "Do what?"

"Al says you made an object explode out of nothing." Ed intervened, keeping both of his arms crossed in front of his chest. She now faced the blond. From his spot, Al could see she was clenching her fists. What on earth did she do that she tried so obvious to keep a secret?

She didn't say a word, but her eyes flickered from Ed to Al, from Al to Ed, and the floor.

"…and what would be my reason to tell?" she finally let out.

"Let's just say we're interested in it." said Edward.

She quickly turned to Brother. "You're interested in magic?" she asked surprised.

_Magic?_

"_Magic?!_" Ed blurted out angrily. "What are you talking about!?"

"Wasn't it alchemy!?" Al asked desperately. It had to be, he thought. What else it could be? An object suffering from an explosive alteration was something he knew it was possible through alchemy, but definitely not in the way he had seen. He had been curious about it. How he hoped it was any different type of alchemy which apparently didn't include any physical movements or an array like the one he knew.

"Alchemy!? What!? No!"

"Aaah! Then this was just wasted time!" Brother growled turning his back on the confused girl. "Let's go, Al. I'm starving." he motioned to his brother exiting the alley.

If he was honest with himself, Al didn't know what to do. He felt curious about it, but his logic part didn't, and it was causing a conflict inside of him. But in the end, it all went down to one thing. He wanted to know more about it.

For him, this hadn't been a waste of time. If someone like her who was trying for what happened to remain a secret, then she must have not been bluffing. Maybe it was even possible, he told himself. Al hadn't moved an inch from the place he was standing after his brother told him to retreat. He was about to turn to her, when she spoke.

"So you're saying you're not sorcerers!?" she yelled, staring at them with daring, angry eyes.

So she _was_ being serious.

"No, we are not." said brother without stopping or looking back. Al looked at his brother leave but did not move from where he was standing. He thought of how this may have looked like a freak show to his brother, a way to make him lose time. Al knew that eventually he would become the target of his jokes for thinking such stupid things.

But he would stay. It was worth the shot to ask again about all of this without his brother around. Even he had to admit his brother was a littleintimidating.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Al came closer to the anger irradiating girl. "What do you mean by 'sorcerer'?" he asked meekly.

The girl looked irritated, as if he and his brother had just made fun of her. But she still raised her head from the floor to look at Al with a more calmed, confused though, look after hearing his words. "I think I've said enough already" she said with regret and turned to leave.

She was walking with what to Alphonse looked like a defeated pace. Her head almost down, shuffling through the ground. _Said enough? _What was that supposed to mean?

"I'd like to know about it." he suddenly said from the same place. He hadn't moved a foot since they arrived to that alley.

"It's not alchemy."

He came closer to her. "I know that now. When you blew up that trash can I thought you were performing a different kind of alchemy than the one me and my brother used"

"How did you even know it was me?" She asked surprised.

"Your reaction."

The girl blushed a little and looked away from him. Had he been too direct when he was supposed to be careful? None of them said anything for a couple of seconds.

"I'm sorry for that bump I caused" he said suddenly remembering the reason that made them cross paths…and that he hadn't apologized yet. Maybe that would soften the situation, he thought. "Are you feeling any better?" he asked.

"I— yeah…I think…" she stuttered until something made her stop. She placed her hand in her stomach. "I— I think I'm hungry" she whispered, but Al could hear.

"You should come with us. There's a meal there." He offered thinking _why not?_

Her eyes suddenly widened. "I don't— No!" she stammered. "You're a…You're a stranger and I…and I appreciate your help a while ago but but…You're a stranger…I don't even know your name!"

He chuckled. "It's Alphonse. Alphonse Elric"

The girl hesitated for a moment but finally answered. "…Francesca"

She let out a final sigh and then accepted.

They finally came out of that dark alley to face the sun rays once again. Alphonse looked up ahead trying to find his brother with his sight, looking at the same time for any spot that rang a bell in his head and made him remember where exactly Teacher's house was. They had run pretty far away from her place and the streets looked not so familiar to him. He wondered if Brother knew how to make it back to Teacher's place and how far had he gotten from where they first were. Even though they were mad at each other, Al couldn't stop worrying about his brother, especially with how stubborn he had been acting lately. Most of all, Alphonse feared that he might do something they would both regret. He had to find him immediately.

He kept walking in a straight line perhaps a little too paranoid about his thoughts that he had almost forgotten the company next to could understand why she was afraid at the beginning but it seemed like she was starting to trust him a little bit. After all, she had to let him make up for the accident he had caused for being too deep into his thoughts.

Francesca was really quiet. She stared at everything trying not to miss a single detail. Al suddenly remembered the moment he found her lying on the floor. Didn't she have a map with her? He asked himself wondering where would that map have gone to. Al figured that she wasn't from here and that's why she stared at everything. Still, he wanted to ask but decided not to.

"Hey," she suddenly spoke. Alphonse looked down at her and noticed she was almost the same height as his brother, maybe a little taller. "I'm sorry about earlier. It's just…It's hard to trust anyone these days."

Al nodded. "I understand" he said. Now he could see the whole situation and now her behavior back then had a lot more sense. She was new in town and one the first things she saw was someone walking around in armor and then chasing her around. Anyone would be scared, even hewould have been scared if he were in the same situation. Except that in his case, he had alchemy to defend himself. She had…_magic?_

"About the magic thing…" he began remembering the real reason behind the chase. "Do you really mean that?"

She opened her mouth to speak but a loud noise interrupted her and she started grabbing her stomach and gritting her teeth. "I'm sorry…about that…" she mumbled.

"I'm sorry. I forgot you were hungry!"

After fifteen minutes of walking, some of the streets became familiar to him again, and if his memory wasn't failing, there should be a restaurant nearby. He guided her through a few people that were walking. Now all they had to do was take left on this corner and, there it was!

It was a small restaurant. Teacher took them out once to eat on a day free of training when they were kids. She told them that it was a reward for the hard work and because she had seen improvement in both of them, so she took them out for meal different than the one she and her husband served at their meat store. Then the brothers had the day off for them to do anything they wanted.

_It's still here!_ Al felt glad for that. Even if he wasn't going to be eating, he mostly felt glad because it was practically the only restaurant he knew. But they were there already and it had brought him such pleasant memories. Also that sound that came from her stomach was pretty worrying.

"I think you can eat here" he said to her pointing at the restaurant. Then he searched in his pocket to check if he had enough money for a meal in here. Al always carried some extra money with him because he knew how careless Brother could be.

He counted enough for a meal for one and motioned Francesca to pick a table.

She suddenly turned white. "You don't need to—I don't really—" she stammered but she was interrupted again by her stomach. She lowered her head muttering a soft 'Thank you' as she got closer to a questions would come later, he thought.

"I'm sorry I don't have any money." She said with a menu in her hand. Al was offered one too but he turned it down. "Oh, you're not eating?"

"Oh no! I'm completely fine!" he laughed nervously. That question always got him not matter how long it had been. He'd say he was tired of it but then again, nobody really knew the reason why, so getting irritated for something like that had no sense at all.

She looked down. "Oh…Sorry you're paying for me only. I'm…_new_ in here. I don't really know anything about this place."

"Of course, I remember you had a map with you."

She suddenly took her eyes off the menu. "My…My map!" Francesca frantically began searching for it in her pockets and around her clothes but without any luck. "I guess it doesn't matter anymore…"She groaned.

Al chuckled. He found her reaction a little funny. It reminded him of someone else. "Where do you come from by the way?" he asked.

"Somewhere…somewhere far away from here" she answered with a certain sadness in her voice not taking her eyes away from the menu.

Somewhere far away from here_?_ Another country maybe? "How did you get to Dublith, then?"

Francesca lifted her eyes. "Dublith? So that's the name of this place?"

Al nodded.

"I didn't…really. I was sent here, by my mentor. This is supposed to be a journey or something." She laughed softly.

"A journey?" he asked surprised.

Her eyes went back to the menu. "Well, yeah. Or at least that's how I call it."

He was waiting on her to decide on what to eat to go look for his brother. He still hadn't forgotten about their fight and he definitely wasn't going to be the one to apologize for this one but he was still worried about his whereabouts. Whenever he gave one of his stubborn speeches, they were shortly followed by a stubborn act and Al always had to be the one to apologize for him.

"Would you…like me to help you?" he offered noticing Francesca hadn't decided on anything yet.

She bit her lip and opened her mouth but was interrupted by a figure in red suddenly yelling at Alphonse.

"AL!" Brother yelled. "Where the _hell_ have you been!? I've been looking for you everywhere!"

"Brother!" Al hissed. "This is a public place! You don't need to shout!"

Edward crossed his arms around his chest and eyed Francesca. "I see you still got the habit of picking up strays."

"A stray?!" Francesca snapped back.

"Can you both please be quiet?" Now Al knew who Francesca reminded him of.

Ed stared at Francesca and she stared back at him, both daringly. Al's head moved from his brother to the girl in a confused way. He didn't know what to do to make them stop. What had he missedbetween her and his brother that they were now looking at each other like that? He tried remembering the accusation at the alley a while ago. Had his brother insulted her or something and he had missed it? _Well_...he did say that that had been a waste of time and after that,Al didn't follow him like hewas supposed toand stayed with her instead. Although when fighting with Brother, one didn't know how the fight would end. When they were little, for a reason, he would always go to the nearest river and Brother would search for him there. That used to be the protocol back then. Though this time he hadn't found a river…

Speaking for Francesca, he remembered the humiliated feeling emanating from her and concluded she was being calm with him because he practically told her she didn't need to get aggressive with them. She had her reasons though, and now he knew them. But brother didn't.

After both stopped to stare at each other like they were going to kill themselves, Al caught his brother staring at the restaurant with such surprised look that Al knew it wouldn't take him long to find out.

"Al is this…?" brother asked. Al nodded.

"No way! It's been ages since the last time we've been here!" he said quite enthusiastic. "Move over, girl. I'm eating here too!" then he grabbed an unoccupied chair and sat between Al and Francesca.

"Nice to know you too" Francesca scoffed.

"Her name is Francesca, brother. She's new in town. This is my brother Edward." Al stated. But Brother apparently didn't listen to him. He looked like he had been practically absorbed by the things the menu had to offer.

"Ok, I'll have one of this!" brother requested thewaiter passing next to them at the moment.

"I'll have one of those too…" Francesca added.

Setting the menu aside, brother took a more relaxed position in his seat. "Hey Al, what made you come here by the way?" he asked.

Al was relieved that his brother wasn't acting stubborn anymore. Brother had been taking a stroll too; he remembered that from when they began to chase Francesca. And now they had relived such good memories after finding this restaurant once again. Maybe it those things had helped take off his mind the whole fight, and now with Francesca here he would probably have a lot of questions. But in the end he was glad for not having to keep fighting with his brother.

"Oh, well Francesca was hungry and this was the closest place with food." Al answered.

"That does sound like you picking up a stray…" Ed added taking a sip of the drink that was just placed on the table.

Francesca let out an annoyed huff and rolled her eyes.

"Brother…"

"It doesn't matter, Alphonse." She interrupted. "But now that the two of you are here, I've got a question"

Both brothers paid complete attention to her.

"Why the heck did you chase me down?"

"Like I said before," Brother began, "We were interested thinking you had performed a different type of alchemy. We thought it was something we had been unaware of…that's it until you said it wasn't really alchemy but…" he rubbed his temples as he let out a groan.

"…magic?" she shot them a quizzical look.

"Do you really mean that?" Al finally asked. That question had been on the back of his mind since she first mentioned it back in that alley, but to be honest, it felt a little awkward for him to ask that.

"I do."

Short after that, the food arrived to the table and brother began eating like crazy, not watching his manners and eating like there was no tomorrow. Not that it surprised Al, though. He was always like this. He could even swallow a whole town. It was a good thing that they had a really big research fund. Besides the number of trains they had to take every week to travel through all of Amestris looking for the stone, the hospital expenses due to brother's carelessness and (he had to admit it) lack of luck, lodging expenses, without mentioning the money spent on research; a very large percentage of that money was spent on food for brother. It really amazed Alphonse how much a human could eat. But of course sometimes he got a little jealous of his brother, even when it was only for a couple of minutes. Then that feeling would eventually go away and was replaced with the hope that one day his brother might be the one teasing him about the excessive amount of food he will get to eat once he gets his body back.

He looked at his brother one last time…He was glad their fight was over.

Francesca, on the other hand, first stared at the food in her plate like it had some kind of weird poison on it. He looked at her as she eyed his brother's lack of manners in the table with a rather curious look. Then she took the first bite of food and apparently really liked it because for the next minutes that she spent eating, it looked like she could almost compete with his brother in an eating contest.

Every time Al found himself in a table full of people eating, he never really knew what to do. If he kept staring at the food the other people were eating he would start feeling a weird sensation inside of him, something that didn't exist because he couldn't feel at all. It was almost the same feeling he got when everyone else was sleeping and he wasn't. But he never left the table though, especially because he was still a bit afraid that his brother and Francesca might kill themselves for a piece of chicken or something.

When he first got into this undying body while they were still living in Resembool, he used to take walks with Ed while Winry and Granny were eating and at nights while everyone was sleeping, and for a reason, Den would always make him company; maybe because she couldn't be part of those activities along with the rest of them or maybe because she felt the loneliness inside Al's empty body. Back then, those walks took everything outside Al's mind and make him feel better. Later on, Ed, Granny, Winry and Den, all four of them took turns in going out with Al to make him feel less lonely.

After he and his brother began this journey, Al first felt a little uncomfortable that he couldn't take his strolls whenever the nice people invited them for a dinner and to spend the night at their homes. That would have been very rude of him. So eventually he got used to it all over again, watching people sleep and eat while he couldn't. He just had to look away, into the streets of Dublith and let his mind wander while it could afford to.

"That was great! This place hasn't changed at all!" Brother exclaimed after he finished his meal. "Al, we definitely need to come back here when you get your— we definitely need to come back!" he corrected himself, but the person who wasn't supposed to hear what he was about to say didn't seem to notice.

"Sure! I'll just write it down, then" Al said taking out his little black book where he wrote down the things he would eat once he got his body back.

The next thing they heard was a big explosion somewhere else. Both brothers stood alert waiting for something else to give them a clue to what had just happened. They saw a group of people running and screaming something about a monsters having appeared in a place not far away from there. It immediately caught Ed and Al's attention and both of them nodded at each other.


End file.
